June 6, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest, 



223 



crevices, have sometimes literally flowed with honey. Our 

 domestic bees have always moved westward just in advance 

 of civilization, so that the Indians have a proverb, "When the 

 bees come, the wise Indian moves on." There are several 

 large "bee ranches" in this county, and one company man- 

 ages nearly a thousand colonies. In the honey season of 1891 

 seven hundred colonies of bees collected 70,000 pounds of 

 honey for their owners. Except at the time for dividing the 

 colonies, the bees need little attention. The principal honey- 

 yielding plants of this vicinity, blossoming in early spring, are 

 species of Acacia, Mimosa and Pithecolobium. Other early- 

 flowering shrubs, like Rhus microphylla, "Correoza," furnish 

 abundance of pollen for the subsistence of the young bees in 

 February or earlier, so that the old bees have their broods 

 reared and all things in readiness to begin the work of collect- 

 ing honey as soon as the plants begin to manufacture and store 

 the nectar for them. In the height of the honey season a sin- 

 gle household of bees will sometimes collect a hundred 

 pounds of honey in two weeks. We now know that plants are 

 the honey-producers, each plant manufacturing its own pecu- 

 liar quality of honey, so that there may be as many grades as 

 there are plants that produce it. White Clover-plants and 

 Basswood-trees yield honey of light color and of exquisite fla- 

 vor. Buckwheat and many other plants give a dark-colored 

 honey, less pleasant tc. the taste. It is said that honey afforded 

 by species of the Cactus family is always more or less acid. 

 Many Composite plants give an unpalatable and bitter flavor, 

 and their increased distribution in cultivated fields has nearly 

 driven bee-farming out of tlte region where they grow. 



The Leona River affords, in its ever-flowing waters and 

 along its moist banks, an abundant flora whose species require 

 constant presence of water, while the uplands around present 

 the usual desert plants of the region already passed over, with 

 the addition of a few more western species, Uvalde being the 

 most western point from which these notes have been written. 

 In some places along the river valley, where the roots of the 

 trees and shrubs in their downward growth can reach perpet- 

 ually moist soil, Live Oaks, Elms and other species attain 

 nearly as large a size as they do anywhere in the state. A 

 walk down the river revealed the presence of Bcehmeria 

 cylindrica, four to six feet tall ; plants of Helianthus Max- 

 imilianus ten feet high, and two or three handsome .Asters 

 bending their flower-laden branches over the river to catch 

 the rising vapor before the dry air absorbed it. Tall, wand-like 

 stems of Lobelia splendens stood near by, but their glory for 

 the season had departed. This species is to south-western 

 creek banks and springy places what L. cardinalis is farther 

 north to similar localities. It is taller than its cousin, but not 

 less handsome. In a still nook of the river the water is com- 

 pletely hid by a mantle of innumerable individuals of little 

 Spirodela polyrrhiza. Close by is a little Bladderwort, Utricu- 

 laria biflora, in flower, while in the rapids some Potamogeton, 

 a true river lover, delights to swim. The low-spreading, small- 

 flowered composite, Synedrella vialis, is common on grassy 

 river-bars and in dumal pastures. It is abundant along the 

 Leona and throughout south-western Texas. 



In drier places the western Euphorbia barbellatta is abun- 

 dant. Passillora affinis is common along the Leona, climbing 

 twenty feet or more. It is a south-western species, closely 

 resembling P. lutea in habit, but with still smaller black fruit. 

 The oak-leaved Stramonium, Datura quercifolia, grows in the 

 streets of Uvalde. In richer and damper soils around the city 



D. metaloides is more commonly met than at any other place 

 in Texas, as I have observed it. The large sweet-smelling 

 flower that it produces has led to its cultivation in gardens both 

 south and north. It is wild in Missouri to nearly the thirty- 

 ninth parallel. A coarse, viscid-hairy, malodorous Abutilon 



. abounds in cultivated lands over this portion of Texas, and 

 farmers complain that its large strong roots impede the pro- 

 gress of their plows. On dry banks of the river, and commonly 

 in southern Texas, IndigoferaLindheimeriana is to be seen. It 

 is very distinct from our other Texasspecies of the genus, and 

 makes an erect and nearly woody stern, becoming two to four 

 feet tall. The numerous reddish flowers are borne on erect 

 spikes ; its pods turn downward and become bow-shaped as 

 they ripen. 



Near the base of Fort Inge Mountain, Perezia uncinata grows. 

 It is a stemless plant, with handsome purple flowers, which 

 makes it the most attractive of our Texas Perezias. Its specific 

 name well describes its leaves. Ephedra pedunculata, a weak, 

 straggling shrub, hardly able to stand without help, is not un- 

 common about the city. Perhaps it would be well to call it a 

 vine ; except in its climbing propensities it hardly differs from 



E. antisyphilitica, as I have seen it. The fruit is barely pedun- 

 culate. Texans call it Bamboo, and it is the Escobia of Mex- 



icans. As browsing animals are very fond of both species, it 

 is a stroke of good luck if one finds a specimen of either 

 species in flower or in fruit, unless in unpastured enclosures. 



The Nueces River, whose wide bed is now dry and dusty, is 

 about six miles distant from Uvalde. The common Castor-oil 

 plant, Ricinus communis, grows as a weed on its dry bed. In 

 extreme southern Texas this plant becomes perennial and 

 woody, really a tree. In damp places along the railway Pere- 

 zia Wrightii is abundant. This species has succeeded in mak- 

 ing itself so different from its Texas congeners that it is more 

 difficult to learn that it is indeed a Perezia than, when that fact 

 is established, to distinguish it from its congeners. It is a tall, 

 usually strict-growing species, and very" leafy to the flower- 

 heads. The leaves are commonly oblong-ovate and clasping 

 at the base. They are not at all runcinate, but are so spinosely 

 and unequally dentate that a transition to a runcinate character 

 could easily be made, if at any time this plant should deem fit to 

 differentiate a runcinately leaved species from itself. Its flowers 

 are white. Overtaking Perezia Wrightii at Uvalde, so much 

 farther eastward than we had expected to meet it, we have 

 now had an introduction, though in a rather sudden and in- 

 formal way, to all known Texas representatives of Perezia 

 agenus, which, withGochmatia, Chaptalia and Trixis, also Texas 

 genera, belong to the wholly southern series of Labiatifloras 

 in Composite, distinguished by the bilabiate, or divided 

 corollas of the flowers of its species, plants which northern 

 botanists at home never see. 



Abounding on the gravelly bars of the Nueces River is a 

 rosaceous plant known to botanists as Fallugia paradoxa. Its 

 pinnate leaves, with several pairs of leaflets, white flowers 

 closely like those of our common Blackberry, and its persis- 

 tent styles, which greatly elongate as the fruits ripen, becom- 

 ing feathery and of a purplish hue, give to the species a habit 

 by which it may readily be known. Handsome in foliage, 

 flowers and fruit, it is really a likable little shrub and worthy of 

 a place in every southern garden. In walking along a public 

 road on my way to the Leona, I noticed a half-starved but hand- 

 some plant growing by the way-side. Dry weather had so 

 dwarfed it that it was hardly recognizable, but a closer look 

 showed it to be Eupatorium Greggii. Its rather large blue 

 flower-clusters are pretty, and its lobed leaves, with their divi- 

 sions variously cut, make the plant unique among our species 

 of Eupatorium. It would adorn any garden where it will 

 grow. 



Fort Inge Mountain, in a rainy season, is good botanizing 

 ground, especially for handsome south-western Ferns. But 

 they nearly all have succumbed to the dry weather. Only 

 Peltea flexuosa and a Cheilanthes were in a condition to be 

 recognized. There are several other species of plants around 

 Uvalde that may be new or rare to some of us, and others are 

 here that we are glad to meet so far westward, but mention of 

 these must be deferred. 



Uvalde, Tex. E. N. Plank. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Richardia Pentlandii. — Some time ago I hinted that 

 tubers of this beautiful yellow Richardia had been received 

 at Kew from Africa. One of the plants raised from them 

 is now in flower and proves to be identical with the plant 

 flowered at Pentland House by Mr. Whyte in 1S92, and 

 since exhibited by him to the admiration of every one who 

 knows a good garden-plant when he sees it. The spathes 

 are as large as those of the common Arum Lily, R. Afri- 

 cana, and of the richest, clearest yellow color, the yellow 

 of the common Sunflower. Mr. Whyte did not know the 

 history of his plant beyond that it had been given to him 

 by a friend. The history of the Kew plants is, briefly : In 

 1891 Mr. Galpin, of South Africa, brought to Kew the 

 tubers of a yellow Richardia which had been presented to 

 him by a gentleman living in the Transvaal, who obtained 

 them from a soldier who got them from a ISasuto chief 

 while on active service. A figure of the Kew plant has 

 been prepared for the Botanical Magazine. 



Lilacs have been finer out-of-doors this year than I ever 

 remember to have seen them. There are many beautiful 

 varieties now, most of which have been bred by Continental 

 nurserymen, especially Monsieur Lemoine, of Nancy. 

 Last week two of the new ones were shown at the meeting 

 of the Royal Horticultural Society, where they were gener- 



